March 27, 2007

Just hook this Alarm Phone Dialer up to something you would like to monitor, for example, a high water alarm, low temperature alarm, back window, garage door, etc. When the system is activated it will call a number of programmed numbers to let you know the alarm has been activated. This would be great to get alerts of alarm conditions from your home when you are at work. The microcontroller code is provided on the site. The circuit uses a MT8880 DTMF dialer chip and a PIC 16F84A microcontroller. If you don’t feel up to the challenge of building your own dialer you can always look to the professionals to monitor anything you like with a modern security system.

“After putting together this little device, you must enter programming-mode to learn some phone numbers which this module will call after detecting an input on it’s sensor pin. After programming just supply power to the device. After pressing the button “Pokreni dojavu alarma” it will start to dial (tone or pulse, depending on the jumper setup). When the phone call is successfully established, the called party should press pound key “#” to stop the device from calling another number or again. You should put a sensor instead of button “Pokreni dojavu alarma”. Programming the numbers 1. press the “program” button 2. pick up the phone that is connected to the same phone-line as this device 3. punch-in first number and then “*” key 4. punch-in then next number and then “*” key 5. punch-in the rest of numbers, if more, and finalise with “*#” (example: 061123123*061456456*#) Please note: The device will learn 64 characters/digits including * and # keys.”
Thanks Muris.

“The spider project began with the idea of making a machine that could crawl, after several attempts I found the easiest solution was to install an air bag under the mechanism to raise and lower machine during leg movements. Each leg can be operated in dependably and an air bag allows the spider to jump two feet straight up in the air on command. A flamethrower is incorporated into his tail for our fire shows. This is very fun to operate! Women seem to like this project the best, I don’t know why!”

David from My-PC-Help.com sent in this video that shows how to use a Neobitz video board to upgrade the Amega 1000 video output.

“The Amiga 1000 comes only with a composite video and RGB output. Neither of those are suitable for use on a modern television. I used a Neobitz-S board to make an internal modification so that the Amiga can output S-video, which is many times more clear on the small text than the original composite.”

March 24, 2007

Here is a nice and simple FM transmitter from David at Volunteer Lab Rat that will let you blast your iPod tunes on your stereo. Full details are provided on the site.

“You know these smart FM transmitters you can use to stream music from your iPod into your car stereo? Here’s a nice little project that I’ve made and that you can build yourself for around 5$. It’s my homebuilt FM transmitter that I use for streaming music into my car stereo and the old-school stereo at the metal workshop at my university! The awesome thing is that the transmitter is based on only one transistor, and is really simple to construct.”